The Teddy Boys or Teds were a mainly British youth subculture of the early 1950s to mid-1960s who were interested in rock and roll and R&B music, wearing clothes partly inspired by the styles worn by dandies in the Edwardian period, which Savile Row tailors had attempted to re-introduce in Britain after the Second World War.
Teddy boys playing music at the Queens Hotel, 1977
Teddy boys walking on a busy street, 1977
Typical black suede creepers fashionable during the 1950s
Bolo tie featuring Native American design
A zoot suit is a men's suit with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. It is most notable for its use as a cultural symbol among the Hepcat and Pachuco subcultures. Originating among African Americans it would later become popular with Mexican, Filipino, Italian, and Japanese Americans in the 1940s.
African American teenagers in zoot suits, 1942
Trumpeter from Lionel Hampton's band wearing a zoot suit
Cab Calloway wears a white zoot suit in a lobby card for the 1943 musical film Stormy Weather.
Malcolm X wearing a zoot suit (1940)